Skysong Community Choir is preparing for its second season with an open house on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
The non-audition choir kicked off with a number of community singing events last year. They will meet every Tuesday at Char's Landing (4815 Argyle St.).
Kim Bothen is Skysong's director. After retiring in 2019 from a long career as a costume designer and creator, and university instructor, Bothen completed the Community Choir Leadership Training intensive in Victoria. She then formed Skysong and became part of the Ubuntu Choirs network of community choirs.
"The pandemic forced many of us to lean on our creativity, and choir sings suddenly showed up on front porches, in parks everywhere, and especially online," Bothen said. "Zoom had its day in the sun and Skysong carried on."
Bothen moved to Port Alberni in the spring of 2022 and started Skysong after putting out feelers about a non-audition choir.
Ubuntu choirs were founded in Victoria B.C. in the mid-1990s by longtime choir director Siobhan Robinsong, of The Gettin' Higher Choir. "Ubuntu is a Swahili word which translates into 'I am because we (you) are,'" Bothen explains. "Siobhan received written blessing from Bishop Desmond Tutu to use the term to describe her vision for community choirs."
Key features for an Ubuntu choir include having a belief that everyone can sing, inclusivity, community building "and the joys of singing for its own sake," she added.
"During one of the biggest snowstorms this year, 13 people came to sing for our first session."
Bothen invites anyone curious about Skysong to an open house on Tuesday, Sept. 24 from 6–8 p.m. at Char's Landing, 4815 Argyle St.
